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Used News
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 Used News is a quarterly newsletter published by BRING Recycling, a nonprofit organization serving Lane County since 1971.Comments and inquiries may be directed to: Used News , BRING Recycling P.O. Box 885 Eugene, OR 97440-0885 Phone: 541-746-3023 Fax: 541-726-9894 Staff Julie Daniel, General Manager David Wollner, Business Manager Damien Czech, Operations Manager Sarah Grimm, Education Coordinator Brian Wilga, Office Manager Shannon Green-Hoffman, Administrative Assistant Board of Directors Lewis C. Bowers, President Doug Clark, Vice-President Nancy Hamren, Secretary Rudy Berg Floyd F. Prozanski, Jr., Advisor Anthony T. Rosta Don Kahle Cary Thompson Roberta Boyden Chris Halaska Bill Klupenger Candy Moffett |
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Services Provided By
BRING Recycling |
| Recycling, Collection and Processing: BRING Recycling has four public drop-off sites for household recycleables in Eugene. We are contracted to process materials collected at the Lane County Central Receiving Station. We coordinate special recycling and waste reduction events such as compost bin sales and computer collection events. Our adminstrative staff works to develop new recycling programs for new materials. Education: BRING Recycling provides workshops, activities and presentations to groups of all ages throughout the county. Each year, the education program reaches well over 10,000 individuals with the reduce, reuse, recycle message. Reuse of Building Materials: The BRING Warehouse, located at the corner of Franklin Blvd. and Seavey Loop, sells used building materials, bicycles, lawnmowers, canning jars, windows, doors, sinks, plumbing fixtures and much, much more. We offer free disposal of unwanted, yet still reusable, materials from remodlers, construction projects, garage cleanouts, etc. Deconstruction: BRING is fully licensed and bonded to assist with the removal of unwanted structures in a way that retains hights reusable value—saving energy, pollution and natural resources for our community. Information: BRING maintains a vedeo and print library of recycling information and trade journals. We are happy to answer questions and assist with research. |
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Index: Find the information
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The Real New World Order
Fall Compost Workshops
Bottle Bill Turns 30
Donations Make a Difference
Our “New” Recycled Trailer
Recycling Drop Sites & Preparation
What to do With Everything Else
BMEX
OCF Reduces Waste
BRING Wins Recycling Award
Lane Co. Tops in Sate Recycling
A Day of Caring
Earth Friendly Parties for Kids
DEQ's K-5 Recycling Curriculum
Used News Survey
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Manager's Corner
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by Julie Daniel
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| We've been talking about our new site for quite a while now and questions like "Have you guys moved yet?" and, "Just when are you moving?" have become so frequent they've overtaken "How come you can't recycle plastic lids?" and "Do you accept Styrofoam?" on our FAQ list. The answer is, we're closer than we were, but there's much more to do than we anticipated. When we purchased the property in Glenwood, we were looking for a more convenient, customer friendly home for our used building materials resale operation and business offices. As we sat down and started planning out the site, we realized we could do much, much more. We saw we could not only build a facility that offered the widest selection of low cost building materials in the state, but one designed to put reuse, deconstruction and waste reduction on the map. We began to dream. What if we built a place that was so much fun, was so entertaining and so interesting that it became a destination? A place you'd take out of town visitors to show them just what this community is all about. A place chock full of ideas, examples and inspiration. A place that combined education with practical application. A place that showed "sustainability" in action.  We want our facility to change the way you look at "used stuff." We want you to experience first hand just how easy and fun reuse can be. We believe that "rethinking" resources is the key to conservation, and we want to inspire you to "rethink". The results will be well worth waiting for! If our community is to achieve its goals of sustainability, we'll need to go beyond recycling, important though it is. We need to learn to use less and reuse more. We want to make our new home a place that will help you do just that. How far along are we? Our site plan is now complete and has been submitted to the City of Springfield for approval. We are getting estimates for the costs of the improvements that must be made to the site before we can occupy it. These fall into several categories. Some are code requirements such as stormwater management, parking, and accessible restrooms. Some are necessary for our operations including a remodel for the building we'll use for offices, a donations receiving area and more covered storage. Some are finishing touches such as demonstration areas, gardens and artwork. We anticipate work starting early in 2002. This is a big project which we will build in stages over a number of years, though we will be able to occupy the site once the basic infrastructure is in place. We'll definitely need your help to make it happen--whether it's a hand on moving day, serving on a committee or getting involved in building a particular project. There are so many possibilities, we're sure you'll find something that sparks your interest! It is exciting to work on a project that will have such a positive impact on our community. We have copies of the site plan and would love to show them to you. Give us a call if you'd like to see them and get a tour of the new site. We'll keep you posted! |
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Spotlight on Milk Jugs
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Plastic milk jugs are by far the most frequently recycled plastic containers found in curbside bins. Do you know what happens to them next? Before I worked for BRING, I thought they were made back into new milk jugs. Wrong! Closed loop recycling is rarely possible when it comes to plastic. (A closed loop is when a material is used over and over.  Glass containers are a good example.) That's one of the reasons we encourage you to seek alternatives to plastic packaging when possible. Most plastic, if recycled, is not made into things that are then recycled again. However, it is still far better to recycle all the plastic containers we can than toss them in the landfill.Milk jugs are made from a type of high density polyethylene (HDPE) called #2 Natural. "Natural" means the plastic is not colored with dyes, making it easier to recycle and more valuable than #2 colored bottles. Natural HDPE is used to package many other products besides milk jugs: juice and shampoo for example. A recycler's tip: when you have a choice between "natural" or colored plastic, buy the product packaged in natural. Remember though, white is not natural, it's dyed, just like orange or blue. All HDPE bottles are marked #2 in the chasing arrows symbol on the base.  In 2000, BRING sent 179 tons of milk jugs to market. That's just under 40% of the plastic we sold. Each ton has around 16,000 individual containers, which means our plastic sorters handled close to three million bottles! After sorting, our milk jugs are baled and sent by truck to Merlin Plastics in British Columbia. BRING tries to sell as much plastic as possible to nearby west coast markets to minimize the environmental impact associated with shipping long distances. At Merlin, the bales are broken open, resorted to remove any remaining contaminants, ground into small flakes, washed to remove glue and paper, dried, melted and passed through an extruder to make pellets. The pellets are sold to manufacturers in the U.S and Canada and used to make new products. Merlin's biggest customers are non-food bottle manufacturers who make packaging for motor oil and cleaning products. They also sell to companies that produce garden pots, trays, plastic pipe and the film used to make the plastic bags you find in grocery stores. Though Merlin is located in Canada, about 65% of both their suppliers and buyers are in the U.S. If you'd like to avoid disposable containers for milk altogether, here are some options. The "green" award goes to Norris dairy in Albany which sells organic milk in returnable glass containers ($1 deposit). It's available at most natural food stores and Price Chopper markets. Darimart sells a line of non-organic milk in reusable plastic containers, again with a deposit. These are both good waste reduction choices. If you buy milk in plastic bottles, be sure to recycle them and please don't tie them on strings! We have to cut these or they jam up the baler. |
